Candice "Candy" Cain is an award-winning writer and director, not to mention owner of the independent production company Gemelli Films. With 16 feature films and three television series under her belt, Candice is best known for her heartwarming Christmas films and wholesome content. By the end of 2023, she and Gemelli Films will have released four new holiday titles with at least one more feature "in the can" with an expected 2024 release.
Christina Raia is a New York based Writer/Director who focuses on character-driven and socially conscious horror and comedy, using genre as a lens to represent, discuss and dissect social issues, otherness and real world anxieties. Her work, consisting of a dozen short films, a web series, and two feature films, has screened at regional festivals all across the country, most recently at Sidewalk Film Festival and Chattanooga Film Festival, and has been covered on various press outlets, such as Indiewire and BuzzFeed. Her mixed race background and particularly her mother's Indo-Trinidadian culture play a major role in Christina's interest in portraying underrepresented perspectives across diverse spectrums of identity in her writing and directing. In 2021, Christina was selected for film incubator Breaking Light Studio, where Lilly Wachowski serves as head of creative development. Through them, Christina has begun development of her next feature, a horror-comedy titled Silent Night, the first draft of which was a 2016 quarter finalist in Slamdance’s Screenplay Competition. Learn more about Christina and her work at christinaraia.com.
Jonathan Burkhart A little too early in his youth, 13, Jonathan worked at a television station on Nantucket Island where he operated camera for the 5:30pm news, then he was promoted to technical director at age 15, then director of news. After college Jonathan worked on dozens of television shows and feature films. Some feature film credits include Spike Lee's “Do the Right Thing” and “Mo' Better Blues,” “Mountain View” for John Sayles, “A Better Tomorrow” for John Woo, “Dazed and Confused” for Richard Linklater, “Roommates” for Peter Yates, and “Reversal of Fortune” for Barbet Schroeder.
Having his fill in the camera department, Jonathan went on to produce independent film, television, and theater. He produced the award-winning film “Baby Steps” starring Kathy Bates, written and directed by Geoffrey Nauffts. Jonathan has also produced several other feature films: “Higher Ground,” directed by Vera Farmiga, starring Vera, John Hawkes, Josh Leonard, Norbert Leo Butz. “Peace, Love, & Misunderstanding,” directed by Bruce Beresford, starring Jane Fonda, Catherine Keener, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Elizabeth Olsen, “The Last Keepers” directed by Maggie Greenwald, starring Aiden Quinn, Virginia Madsen, and Olympia Dukakis, and “Rhymes with Banana” directed by Joe Muszynski and Peter Hutchings. Starring Zosia Mamet and Jee Young Han. Jonathan also produced “I Dream Too Much”, starring Eden Brolin, and License Plates, starring Robert Gorrie, “The Independent” by Greg Naughton, and “Little” Faith by Milena Lurie. Most recently Jonathan produced Keith Bearden’s “Antarctica” starring Kimie Muroya and Chloe Levine.
Television projects include the scripted episodic series “Almost There”, starring Steven Pasquale, and Christopher Fitzgerald, "Ivy Dreams," a feature documentary for AZN, “Must Do Disney” for Disney, The Super Bowl Half Time Show for the NFL, “Away We Go” by Jonathan Larson, and the “Tomorrow is Tonight Show” starring Ben Stiller for Comedy Central. Jonathan has also produced commercials for Time Warner, NY1, Honda, HGTV, The Walt Disney Company, Bionorica Pharmaceutical, Chase Bank, Nintendo, American Express, Prudential Life, Verizon, and the Ford Motor Company. Jonathan prefers producing so that he’s closer to spread sheets and the accounting office.
In theater, Jonathan produced the Tony nominated Broadway production of Mario Cantone’s “Laugh Whore,” which he also produced as television special for The Showtime Networks. He also produced the award-winning play “Avow” with Bill C. Davis, and the 10th anniversary production of “RENT” on Broadway with the original cast. And there was “In Search of Cleo” written by and starring Gina Gershon performed at The Box, where drinks were free at the bar!
After losing his dear friend Jenifer Estess to ALS, Jonathan joined the stunningly successful Project ALS where he is most proud of his duties as event producer.
But wait, there’s more: Jonathan is the co-founder and president of the Nantucket Film Festival, dedicated to honoring screenwriters and their craft. The Festival launched in 1996 and has honored writers including Ring Lardner Jr., Walter Bernstein, Charlie Kaufman, Jay Presson Allan, James Schamus, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Jim Taylor, Alexander Payne, Paul Schrader, Steve Martin, Judd Apatow, Harold Ramis, Barry Levinson, and David O. Russell. The film festival is Jonathan’s only source of fun.
Lastly, Jonathan is certified as an advanced trimix scuba diver and has dived all over the world to depths as deep as 250’. When he can, he spends as much time underwater as possible. Though this has nothing to do with producing, Jonathan has learned to breath efficiently under water, which in turn tends to help during long shoot days.
Sunny Edelman, Moderator
As a Classically trained actor, Sunny has directed and performed roles from Shakespeare to Clare Boothe Luce, working in regional, Off Broadway theaters, as well as in an Emmy winning television program and numerous Indie films. She received a B.A. in Theater Arts from S.U.N.Y New Paltz and studied with Iza Itkin, Robert Castle, Bob Luke and Peter Sklar. Sunny also took classes at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-Upon-Avon, England.
Sunny is an Associate Casting Director for Hudson Valley Casting and has worked on such films as “The Dead Don’t Die”, “I’m Thinking of Ending Things”, “What We Found” and “Driveways” to name a few.
She has worked with a number of film festivals, in a few different roles. She was the events coordinator for The Hudson Valley International Film Festival and The Catskills International Film Festival. Festival Director of the North By Northeast Film Festival and host at The New York State Film Festival. Ms. Edelman is both honored and excited to be working at the Lake Placid Film Festival.
A fierce advocate for women in film, Sunny is currently the President of Upstate NY Women in Film and Television.
Micah Khan, Moderator
Micah Khan is a writer/director who has directed and produced over 30 short films. His passion for equity and bringing impactful stories to life is unmatched. Micah brings this same energy to set where everyone is made to feel loved and supported.
Micah recently wrapped his feature debut, The Zombie Wedding, which is the first film launching the Weekly World News IP-Driven studio slate. The 19-person ensemble cast includes Cheri Oteri (SNL), Seth Gilliam (The Walking Dead, The Wire), Heather Matarazzo (Scream, The Princess Diaries), Kevin Chamberlin (10 million on Tiktok, Tony Nominated), Christine Spang (Succession), Siobhan Fallon Hogan (Men in Black, Wayward Pines), Vincent Pastore (The Sopranos), Ajay Naidu (Office Space), Mu-Shaka Benson (Wu-Tang, Blacklist), Micky Dolenz of the Monkees, Deepti Menon (Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Donald Chang (Squid Game), Katie Kuang (Wounded Fawn), Krystina Alabado (Means Girls on Broadway) and Jay DeYonker (American Horror Story).
His latest short film, Meetcute on Danceworld, was featured on MovieMaker Magazine, tweeted by Ben Stiller to his 5.4 million followers, and David Benioff of HBO’s Game of Thrones said of it “Never seen anything quite like it before. I was smiling the whole way through. It’s fresh, original and it kicks ass.” Before that, his action short film, Safe House, was the winner of Robert Rodriguez's People's Network Showcase Contest and premiered on El Rey Network.
His screenplays have been placed in Austin Film Festival, Screencraft, a finalist at 1497’s South Asian Writers Lab, and was recently selected as a mentee for Mentorship Matters BIPOC Writers Initiative sponsored by Amazon and AMC Networks. Micah is currently collaborating with MovieMaker Magazine on a series of interviews on the craft of filmmaking where he's interviewed Oscar-nominated filmmakers like Denis Villeneuve, Spike Lee, Joe Wright, Zach Braff, and many more.
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